I am my own censor: ‘Hunterrr’ director Harshvardhan Kulkarni

“Hunterrr” director Harshvardhan Kulkarni says he wrote the film keeping in mind various sensibilities and was not perturbed by the no cuss-words guidelines of the censor board.

“Hunterrr” director Harshvardhan Kulkarni says he wrote the film keeping in mind various sensibilities and was not perturbed by the no cuss-words guidelines of the censor board.

“Hunterrr”, a coming-of-age comedy, revolves around an unassuming sex addict and his lustful journey in life.

“It was conceived and in the making for a long time when censor board was very lenient. It’s as if we are preparing for our board exam and the syllabus has changed at the last moment.

“We did not face much problem because we only had three cuss words in the movie. It’s a really subtle comedy. And I am the biggest censor myself,” he told PTI during a visit here.

The film bagged an ‘A’ certificate but the director said their film was cleared in the first screening itself.

“We were not worried about censorship. The film was never supposed to be filled with expletives. It’s not as if the film has changed dramatically after the censorship,” said Kulkarni, who wrote the screenplay of hit romantic-comedy “Hasee Toh Phasee”.

The director admitted he was sceptical about writing the movie because he did not want to be branded as a B-grade filmmaker.

“I wanted it to be my first film as a director. But I was scared about the idea of writing it. I was sceptical. I come from a very orthodox family. I live in a very middle class locality. I don’t want to be judged like I am making this sleazy, B-grade kind of films. I have a daughter who goes to school and I attend her PTA meetings too,” he said.

Kulkarni’s father, author GV Kulkarni encouraged him to shed his inhibitions.

“My dad told me how ‘A Doll’s House’, Henrik Ibsen’s play, was perceived bold because it dealt with a woman walking out of her marriage, which was unthinkable at that time.

“He told me ‘Morality keeps changing, you can’t shut yourself and not write it’. But I felt I was making a bold film because when you sell sex with middle class it becomes all of a sudden sensational,” he said.

The film’s trailer, which released early this year, was received well which made the director happy.

“When I started, I thought I will end up showing it to the people in my society for free. But once the trailer came out and got a good response, I got the confidence that people were liking it,” he added.

‘Hunterrr’, releasing this Friday, stars Gulshan Devaiah, Radhika Apte and Sai Tamhankar in lead roles and has been produced by Phantom Films.

Source:: Indian Express